Chris Garcia spent two seasons split between Tempe and Orem.

I've been writing about the Florida Winter Baseball League and its former Angels minor leaguers. Three of them are here with the Space Coast Surge, and two are down in Miami.

I found a sixth. Chris Garcia, who played first base for Tempe and Orem in 2007 and 2008, is with the Seminole County Naturals. One week into the season, he's second in the league in batting average at .391, 9 for 23.

I'll see Chris this weekend. The Surge will be in Sanford, about 60 miles from here, to play the Naturals on Sunday. I'll be doing photos and video for the league at the 1 PM EST day game.

The three former Angels with the Surge are Baron Short, Stantrel Smith and Anthony Sullivan. Tyler Johnson and Trevor Pippin are with the Miami Diamantes.

Nick Adenhart made his Pioneer League debut on September 5, 2005, pitching for Orem against Ogden.

As I do every off-season, the Angels Minor League Game of the Week returns today on FutureAngels.com. It will run through the end of spring training, with a new game every Friday.

The idea is not only to get you through baseball withdrawal, but also to hopefully educate people more about the players in our minor league system. I archive the teams' webcasts during the season and provide them with copies on CD-ROM, and in exchange I get to post them during the off-season.

This year, I'm going to start with a tribute to Nick Adenhart. The first four webcasts will be memorable games in Nick's minor league career.

The first one is September 5, 2005. He'd just joined the Orem Owlz in Rookie-A, having completed his rehab from "Tommy John" surgery at our minor league complex in Arizona. Nick faced Orem's rival, the Ogden Raptors.

Some other interesting tidbits from this game ... Mark Trumbo hits two home runs. Marco Albano, who's now a Double-A reliever pitching in the Arizona Fall League, was a utility player at the time and was in the lineup at second base.

The broadcasters ... Um, I'm sorry.

The Owlz that year thought they would experiment by hiring two wanna-be stand-up comedians to be the broadcasters. They had no baseball broadcasting experience at all. The thinking was they would liven up the broadcasts by constantly making jokes.

In reality, not only did they know nothing about baseball, but also they were singularly unfunny.

Anyway, the link is on the FutureAngels.com home page at www.futureangels.com. You need Windows Media Player to listen.

In December, we'll start with 2009 season webcasts.

Legendary sitcom Seinfeld in its pilot episode described itself as "a show about nothing." 

This is the time of year when there's pretty much nothing to write about Angels minor league baseball. Nothing's going on, at least that we the people can see.

Behind the scenes, of course, plenty is going on. Some minor leaguers are being released. Decisions are being made about which managers, coaches and roving instructors will return in 2010. A few American players will be sent to the Dominican academy, and others will find jobs somewhere in winter ball.

But it's all fairly mundane stuff, not really anything you blog about.

Some fan blogs drone on and on about the most trivial of matters, seemingly under pressure to produce content to keep their readers entertained. I'd rather post when I have something to say, or at least when something needs to be said.

I always write my annual FutureAngels.com Top 10 Prospects report in November. I'm doing that now, but I wait to publish until after the Arizona Fall League ends so I can consider what happens there.

Major League Baseball also has the tradition that you don't do anything newsworthy until the World Series is over, which also leaves us less to write about.

So I found myself having a very Seinfeld-like debate with myself this morning about what to write ...

Me: You really should write a blog. You haven't written one in a while.

Me2: That's because there's nothing to say.

Me: People expect you to write for them.

Me2: So what? They're not paying for it.

Me: That's a cynical attitude.

Me2: It's my life. Besides, blogs should be about quality, not quantity.

Me: Don't you want to be popular?

Me2: Oh, puh-leeze, we've heard that one before.

Me: Some of those other fan blogs claim you're not popular.

Me2: Some of those other fan blogs claim Mike Scioscia is the dumbest manager in the history of the sport.

Me: Yeah, but they find something to write about.

Me2: What, you want me to rag on and on about the Yankees?

Me: A popular topic. Guaranteed to attract attention.

Me2: Especially from the Yankee frontrunners.

Me: Yep. Hit count gold.

Me2: But what does it have to do with Angels minor league baseball?

Me: Nothing.

Me2: Exactly.

Me: Hmmm ... Well, how's about a blog about the decisions the Angels have to make this winter?

Me2: EVERYONE is writing about that. It's hardly a unique story idea.

Me: It would be your opinion.

Me2: Opinions are like anal orifices. Everyone has one. And they all pretty much spew the same thing.

Me: That was crass.

Me2: You wanted hit count.

Me: How's about you attack the mainstream media?

Me2: Whatever for?

Me: Oldest trick in the book. Attack someone more successful and credible than you. Makes people think you're edgy and controversial.

Me2: Which results in more hits.

Me: Exactly.

Me2: Doesn't mean you know what you're talking about, though.

Me: Well, how's about you make up an interview?

Me2: WHAT?!

Me: Yeah, make up an interview with a recognizable name. No one will know the difference.

Me2: (icily) I WOULD.

Me: You'll impress people.

Me2: Until I get caught. Then people will think I'm a loser.

Me: You won't get caught. Remember what P.T. Barnum said, "There's a sucker born ..."

Me2: (interrupts) P.T. Barnum didn't say it.

Me: He didn't?!

Me2: No.

Me: Who did?

Me2: Click Here if you want to find out.

Me3: There you go, trying to educate people again by getting them to click on a link.

Me and Me2: Who are you?!

Me3: Your inner self. Your guilty conscience. The part of you always questioning yourself. Your Jiminy Cricket, if you will.

Me: You really are a pest, you know.

Me2: Agreed.

Me3: I keep you humble.

Me: Bite me.

Me2: Me too.

Me3: Attack me if you will, but the fact remains that you need a topic for your blog. You went off-topic.

Me: (sighs) Fine ...

Me2: Okay, conscience, do you have any bright ideas?

Me3: Hmmm ... Well, what are the other fan blogs writing about?

Me2: Who cares?! We don't copy the other blogs. We write about what's important to us.

Me: But copying the others would get you more hit count.

Me3: Which is important.

Me2: Shut up. Who asked you.

Me3: You did.

Me2: I asked for a "bright" idea.

Me: You didn't like any of mine.

Me2: Shut up.

Me3: Testy today, aren't we?

Me: Sure is.

Me2: Look, I need a blog topic idea. If we don't come up with a topic, we've got nothing.

Me: That's it!

Me2: What?!

Me: Nothing!

Me2: You've lost me.

Me: It worked for Seinfeld. It was the most successful sitcom in TV history.

Me2: But the show was about nothing.

Me: Exactly.

Me2: Seems intellectually lazy to copy someone else's formula.

Me3: And yet you seem to have no problem with using your internal monologue as an excuse for a blog.

Me2: Stop nagging.

Me: If you write a blog about nothing, then you're done.

Me3: He has a point.

Me2: Well, I do have a lot of other things to do ...

Me3: Then we're agreed.

Me: Works for me.

Me2: (sigh)

I ran across a video clip of Gary DiSarcina telling a story about the superstitious Darin Erstad. Click Here to watch the video on YouTube. It runs about a minute.

Click Here to watch the Ares I-X launch. You need Windows Media Player and a broadband (cable modem, DSL) Internet connection.

The weather was once again a factor as NASA tried to launch the Ares I-X. Because this is a test flight, NASA was concerned about a phenomenon that can cause clouds to reflect radio signals to and from the craft. Not only might they lose valuable data, but a self-destruct message might be lost too, which would be a bad day in my neighborhood should Ares be headed in my direction.

With 30 minutes left in today's launch window, the weather people found a gap in the clouds long enough for Ares to launch. Click here to read CNN's report on the launch. The video on that page is a NASA compilation, including a camera mounted on the craft's fuselage.

The above video is shot from my driveway, looking northeast towards Kennedy Space Center and Pad 39-B. You'll note that the rocket sound doesn't reach us until nearly a minute after launch; because sounds travels at about one mile every five seconds, that tells you I'm about 12 miles away from 39-B. But less than two minutes into the recording, it gets pretty loud. The house windows were rattling; it reminded me of a minor earthquake back in California.

My "A" camcorder is out for repair, so I had to use an older one with less quality. I lost track of the rocket right after launch because the view finder isn't all that great. But you get the idea.

Ares 1-X on Pad 39-B awaiting launch tomorrow morning. STS-129 is on Pad 39-A in the background. The Delta and Atlas rocket pads are in the distance. Photo courtesy NASA.

I wrote on Thursday about the historical significance of two different spacecraft on the Shuttle launch pads.

I suspected NASA would have someone take a photo showing both craft, and sure enough it showed up online today.

Ares 1-X is supposed to launch tomorrow (Tuesday) at 8 AM EDT with a four-hour launch window, but there's only a 40% chance of acceptable weather.

I hope to go out and videotape it, but I've been sick with a mild case of the flu since Saturday. If they launch, and if I film it, I'll post it here as I've posted previous launches since arriving in Florida.

Easy to remember because we share the same date ... but many, many years apart.

Thinking of ya, big fella.

The many controversial calls in the ALCS have led some to call for expanded use of instant replay in the playoffs.

Count me firmly in the "no" column.

Tim McCarver made an excellent point during last night's telecast. How far does it go? Strike zone calls? Checked swings? Balks? A failure to call a balk? How's about that phantom double play call at second base when the infielder usually gets the call if he's "in the vicinity"?

And what about obscure rules like coaches standing in the coach's box, or how high on a bat pine tar is permitted?

MLB has allowed instant replay for home run calls, and so far it's been rarely used -- because home run calls are rarely disputed.

A situation like Game #4 where Mike Napoli tagged two runners who were not standing on the base would seem like a valid situation.

But how do you write into the rulebook the controlled use of instant replay so it doesn't become abusive? And how do you address errors that might occur in subjective decisions such as strike zone?

Years ago, when I was pursuing a career as a full-time writer, I noodled around with an idea for a novel about professional baseball several hundred years in the future. One idea I had was that technology had come so far that baseball had eliminated human umpires and implemented a system called Perfect Umpire.

Perfect Umpire was an integrated technology woven into the literal fabric of the game. Uniforms were made of tiny filaments that would sense position, contact and movement. The same with baseballs. The fields were artificial surfaces made of the same material. All of it was instantly transmitted into a computer server that would always make the right call.

In theory.

In the opening scene, the primary character dives for a ball and catches it -- only Perfect Umpire rules he trapped it.

Ballplayers -- and unscrupulous owners -- have figured out ways to hoodwink the technology, the futuristic versions of the corked bat and sandpaper.

It was all tongue in cheek, of course, but the point was that no technology is perfect when human beings are involved.

All instant replay does is inject human judgment at a different step in the process. Will it improve the number of correct calls? Hard to say. The track record with instant replay in the NFL, in my opinion, has been somewhat mixed. I've seen replays that are inconclusive. Then what? Stick with the ruling on the ground? So all you've done is validate the original ruling, or at least shown the technology isn't any better than human judgment, which meant it was a waste of time.

Instant replay might have reversed blown calls like the two runners on third in Game #3. But do we really want to see managers call for instant replay over and over again when an infielder is in the neighborhood on a double play turn at second? Technically, yes, he's supposed to touch the bag. But neither do we want to increase the number of injuries to infielders.

It seems to me that instant replay complicates things, and removes a certain charm unique to the game.

Extra for experts ... "Perfect Umpire" was a homage to the long-defunct Perfect Writer, the first word processor software I ever used. It came with the Kaypro II, a CP/M computer I bought circa 1984.

From time to time, I've seen posts on fan boards claiming that "no one" reads this blog.

Unbeknownst to those individuals, MLBlogs.com posts a monthly listing of the most popular blogs on their service. The FutureAngels.com Blog consistently has been in the top ten fan blogs, although it's slipped a bit in the last couple months simply because so many new blogs have joined their service.

MLBlogs.com just posted their 2009 regular season rankings. The FutureAngels.com Blog finished #10 in the fan blog category. It's clearly the most popular Angels blog on their service. They list the top 60, although they have many more than that.

Unlike the fan boards, I'm not into the "who's the most popular" debate. Number of hits doesn't equate to quality of content.

So I'm posting this for the public record.

STS-129 with Atlantis on Pad 39-A

The Ares 1-X rocket on Pad 39-B.

For the first and quite probably the last time, two different spacecraft currently sit on launch pads at Kennedy Space Center.

Pad 39-A currently hosts STS-129, scheduled for launch on November 16.

Pad 39-B has the Ares 1-X test rocket, scheduled for launch on October 27.

Ares is the next-generation vehicle planned to replace the Space Shuttle, which is scheduled for retirement by the end of 2010. It's a return to the Apollo-era technology, a capsule atop a rocket.

Pads 39-A and 39-B were once identical, but 39-B was partially deconstructed to accommodate the Ares test flight. After 1-X launches, the rest of the structure will be demolished and a new gantry will be built.

You'll notice that the lightning rod at 39-A is atop the gantry, while over at 39-B it's been removed and three new towers have been built nearby to draw away lightning from the vehicle.

I shot these photos today from an observation tower halfway between the two sites, less than three miles away. The Kennedy Space Center bus tour takes you to the tower, where you get a magnificent view of all the significant structures on base.

Just to the east of the observation site is the intersection where the road splits to go to Pads A and B. Below is a photo of the intersection, along with a sign displaying the message, "Ares 1-X Welcome to Pad B." How friendly.

Choose your departure point -- Pad A or Pad B.